National leaders` statues must be erected sensibly

Aurangabad: Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said statues of national leaders should be erected "sensibly" and that expenses on building them could instead be utilised for upliftment of children from economically weaker sections of society.

"Erecting statues of national leaders is necessary but it should be decided how many statues should be raised. In my constituency of Baramati there are no statues," Pawar said while addressing a gathering after unveiling the statue of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar at a university campus this evening.

"If anybody proposes to make a statue, we ask him how much money are they going to spend on it. After this we add equal amount of money and use it for educating economically backward children," the NCP chief said.

He appealed to the teaching fraternity to work hard to hone students` skills and make them capable of taking on global challenges.

Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan presided over the function held in the campus of the Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University.

Hailing the dalit icon for his farsightedness, Pawar said, "Ambedkar was a real visionary who thought of sharing electricity and connecting rivers in that period. Many laws including laws for labour are inspired by him."

Technical and Higher Education Minister Rajesh Tope said that the state government has sanctioned Rs 1.5 crore for building a Science Park at the university and an equal amount will be shouldered by the Central government.

Governor Sankaranarayanan said that the task undertaken by Ambedkar was "very difficult" but he was successful in turning around the education sector.

"However, despite globalisation, the SC and ST communities are yet to get benefit of globalisation... Universities should emphasise on technical and vocational education as it can provide employment to them," he said.